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Seven-Country, Eight-Week Euro Jam (July, August '22)

I also find that enthusiasts tend to overestimate how much the general public cares about roughness on a ride
I think enthusiasts immediately compare the roughness of a coaster with all the other coasters they’ve ridden and can gauge it immediately, whereas the GP, I suspect, often just think a rough coaster is what roller coasters are supposed to be like, and coasters are supposed to be fun, so ‘I should like this.’ I know what you mean, and I agree, but I also think that even when they don’t complain, they take in the roughness, they recognize it on some level, and then they’re less likely to re-ride, or even less likely to ride coasters in general, not knowing their most recent experience was an outlier.

Anyway, aside from the Volares, the coaster I rode that had most of the GP audibly complaining was Shivering Timbers. Sitting on the brake run and walking down the exit, I could hear everyone around me complaining about what it did to them physically — never heard so many different complaints and groans all at the same time. That was for each of the four rides I got.
 
When I was younger, (and short enough that my face sat directly between the shoulder restraints) we used to marathon a boomerang all day. We definitely spent a lot of time comparing bruises at the end of the day. Sometimes if we'd had a particularly rough ride, we'd comment on it between rides. I would class us as GP at that point, and would generally agree with @MestnyiGeroi... We knew it was rough and we were getting banged around, but we didn't really know anything else, and thought that it was normal.

(The Missile for anybody wondering.)
 
JARDIN D’ACCLIMATATION and FÊTE FORAINE DES TUILERIES

About a half-hour stroll from

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one can find this

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and the likes of this

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Jardin d’Acclimatation is a park for children with four coaster credits. Often coasters in small children’s parks are in janky condition, but these are all well-maintained, expensive coasters. That status may be helped by the expensive nature of the park (inexpensive to get in; expensive if you want to ride things).

I got three of the four credits. The fourth, Machine à Vapeur, was down. A sign said it was temporarily down for a mechanical issue and asked for our patience until it was up running again shortly, but the rather permanent look of the sign itself told me this one ain’t opening. The ones I rode — two family coasters and one kiddie — were all fun for what they were, and the park is a nice, clean environment with many different kinds of attractions for kids.

On the walk back from this park I came across the funfair in the Tuileries Garden, and had to stroll through to see if there was a credit lurking. There was — a wacky worm called La Pomme. I decided I had better ride it to see whether it was, as advertised, wacky. It was.
 
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NIGLOLAND

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(Hate when it rotates some of my photos.)

I didn’t have much in the way of expectations for this park, so I had no idea how charmed I was about to be. The park has wonderful theming everywhere, and the park is woodsy and shaded throughout, making it feel for me like a mix between Dollywood and Fårup Sommerland in some ways. All of the coasters were winners, and many other rides were enjoyable. I loved this park.

Granted, the park does its share of ripping off Disney.
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There’s a haunted mansion ride clearly modeled after Disney’s, and while it’s a fifth-rate version of the original, it’s still very nice for what it is. Then there’s a Jungle Cruise, called Africa Cruise, which is a close, scene-by-scene copy.
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Then there’s a Dinosaurs Alive walk-through that, interestingly, includes a pre-show, releasing batches of people onto the path with much fanfare. The ride is a copyright-skirting evocation of Jurassic Park, and when the doors first open they go ahead and play the actual Jurassic Park music.
And a coaster called Spatiale Experience has a bit of Space Mountain and a lot of Euromir.

Despite all this copying, the park has a wonderful charm all its own, really winning me over quickly.

In terms of coasters, Alpina Blitz is the star.
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In the middle and toward-the-front rows (I never got a front-row ride), it’s a great coaster with fun airtime. But in the back row, it transforms into what is for me a top twenty coaster in Europe. Every drop absolutely YONKS the rider down, and this was an absolute blast. This ride alone was worth the train trip from Paris, but the park itself was a winner, too.

A great day at a great park. Don’t sleep on Nigloland.

Btw, if anyone can tell me what the park’s name means or refers to, I’d be grateful.
 
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And a coaster called Spatiale Experience has a bit of Space Mountain and a lot of Euromirsat.
Btw, if anyone can tell me what the park’s name means or refers to, I’d be grateful.
Niglo is the Hedgehog mascot.

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Him.
 
Niglo is the Hedgehog mascot.

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Him.
I definitely meant Euromir, with the music, countdown, and spiral lift hill, but I never rode Eurosat before the Moulin Rouge facelift.

And thank you for the park name answer! Is that mascot just original to the park? Meaning, did Niglo predate the park’s creation in any way?
 
And thank you for the park name answer! Is that mascot just original to the park? Meaning, did Niglo predate the park’s creation in any way?
I'm no expert but a bit of googling suggests no, it was invented with the park. The name is derived from the Romany/European traveller language for hedgehog and it was set up by a couple of showmen called the Gélis brothers.
Click here for more.

I definitely meant Euromir, with the music, countdown, and spiral lift hill, but I never rode Eurosat before the Moulin Rouge facelift.
:( Yeah Eurosat had all those things too (music was better!), it was weird riding them back to back at Europa. The ride type & train was literally the same as Spatiale though, along with the indoor romp and theming.
 
BELLEWAERDE

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Spent two-thirds of a day at the cute Belgian family park Bellewaerde. It’s a well-themed place with lots of shade and six credits (at least as coaster-count lists them).

All of the coasters were enjoyable, but I didn’t feel compelled to re-ride any of them, which says something. My favorite was Huracan (shown above). The coaster section is quite enjoyable, albeit too short, and this is preceded by a considerable dark ride section (I understand this space used to be a dark ride).

Wakala is their newest addition and it’s a nice family coaster — the coolest part of which for me was the decorative trains.

There is also a dueling mountain coaster. It doesn’t go particularly fast, and it doesn’t even have any controls for the rider to affect their speed. But it is remarkably vertiginous as it zips around sharp curves at quite an elevation from the ground.

The park has numerous animal exhibits, including a walk-through lemur enclosure. I didn’t expect the day to include a lemur approaching me and touching my shoelaces for a while.

Lastly, I came from the train station in Ypres on the bus, but opted to walk back, and I was really glad I did. The walk goes right through the fields of World War I, and right through the heart of Ypres (Ieper).

Tomorrow a coaster is on the agenda that … dare I say that dangerous phrase? … has a chance of becoming a new number one … ???
 
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PLOPSALAND DE PANNE and BOUDEWIJN SEAPARK

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This will not be a typical park report.

So I went to Plopsaland the day after Bellewaerde. I had heard the lines for the kiddie and family coasters get really long, and I even heard from one person who couldn’t complete all the creds because of the queues. I got there right at opening, however, and managed to plough through all the kiddie and family creds in the first hour! This was an efficient use of time, and it was also useful because if I wanted Ride to Happiness to be my 800th, I’d have to ride nearly everything else first. And that’s what I managed.

Anubis I rode twice. In the front I had a blast, but then found it a lot more rattly in the back later in the day.

Heide the Ride was quite fun — I love GCIs — but it had no airtime.

The Ride to Happiness I rode mid-day, then a couple of times later, and then at the end of the day when the line had shortened, I took my day’s ride total on it to ten. More on that later. All seats were good, but I thought it was best in the front.

TRtH did not emerge as my new number one, despite my thinking it was an outside possibility. I think I just love plunging drops too much on coasters, and that’s what does it for me the most. But there can be no doubt that this coaster is phenomenal. The attribute that really stuck out to me the most was the way that every ride is different. Some rides were nice but nothing too special, but some rides featured moments of utter insanity that had me cackling like a madman. As for a nit to pick, on some rides the last few elements were quite shuddery-rough, which is perhaps concerning on a new coaster (Time Traveler, by contrast, is glass smooth throughout). Overall, TRtH is a phenomenal coaster, something that really stands out as different in my coaster riding experience.

Sadly, it will stand out for another reason. Some of you may recall my having mentioned that on I305 a few years ago I got a bad concussion. It was not from an impact, but from my head being shaken. Learned the hard way that that’s a thing. This concussion was terrible and lasted two and a half months. Not fun.

Well, with the adrenaline pumping, I didn’t notice much wrong during my marathon of TRtH, but afterward, on the train ride back to Bruges, I could feel it. Almost dizzy, almost like a hangover. Hard to describe. Not as bad as the last time, but definitely there and definitely a problem. Now, forty-eight hours later, I still feel it. So what does this mean? First, unless I make a remarkable 100% recovery tomorrow, the first thing it means is I’ll have to skip Walibi Belgium the next day, the last day of my trip. But I’ll see a doctor when I get back, and what I really fear is that this may be the end of my coaster hobby. Hopefully, a doctor will tell me scaling back and being careful is still a possible approach, but repeat concussions and the brain are nothing to mess with, so frankly this is quite a downer to end the trip with. 😭

At any rate, the next day I spent seeing Bruges (which I enjoyed a lot, despite several telling me it’s a boring place), and in the morning, I walked just south of the main part of town to visit Boudewijn Seapark. Yes, they have a coaster. I believe it’s called Orca Ride. And while I strolled about a bit, pet a goat or two, and caught a dolphin show, it was essentially an expensive +1 credit. 😂 I just hope that in the long run TRtH doesn’t prove the most expensive credit in my coaster-riding hobby.
 

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Wow i'm finally caught up! That concussion doesn't sound good. Sounds like we had similar experiences on RTH (except for the concussion part!). I also found it shuddery/semi rough. It was really busy on the day i was there so bought the 9 ride fast pass card. Used 6 of them on RTH and gave it as good a chance as it could. While it was still an amazing ride, I don't think it would even crack my top 10 rides on my Europe trip. All the hype from people probably set the expectations too high for me and it just couldn't deliver on that. It's definitely unique and fun, but the roughness annoyed me, especially being such a new coaster. At some point I thought perhaps it's just a Mack thing, but Blue Fire at Europa Park a few days later were smooth as butter.

Are you telling me you have or are missing out on Kondaa? If so that's a massive shame. I cant remember my exact words, but I rode it the day after RTH and it's essentially in a tier above RTH for me and was smooth as silk compared to RTH. I actually think there's something wrong with the RTH trains as i've not heard anyone really talk about how rough it is, but I'm glad you mentioned it as I was thinking perhaps I'm going crazy.
 
Wow i'm finally caught up! That concussion doesn't sound good. Sounds like we had similar experiences on RTH (except for the concussion part!). I also found it shuddery/semi rough. It was really busy on the day i was there so bought the 9 ride fast pass card. Used 6 of them on RTH and gave it as good a chance as it could. While it was still an amazing ride, I don't think it would even crack my top 10 rides on my Europe trip. All the hype from people probably set the expectations too high for me and it just couldn't deliver on that. It's definitely unique and fun, but the roughness annoyed me, especially being such a new coaster. At some point I thought perhaps it's just a Mack thing, but Blue Fire at Europa Park a few days later were smooth as butter.

Are you telling me you have or are missing out on Kondaa? If so that's a massive shame. I cant remember my exact words, but I rode it the day after RTH and it's essentially in a tier above RTH for me and was smooth as silk compared to RTH. I actually think there's something wrong with the RTH trains as i've not heard anyone really talk about how rough it is, but I'm glad you mentioned it as I was thinking perhaps I'm going crazy.
Yep, I’m spending my last day of the trip hanging out in Brussels and very much not going to Walibi Belgium as planned. It’s a bummer of an ending to the trip, but I’ll have to see about my head first and then hopefully still have the possibility of returning to WB in the future. Hopefully.
 
I'm so sorry to hear about that mate, really disappointing as my recent Walibi trip gave me a new number one. But, you're correct, you need to look after your health first and Walibi is only a short flight (or Eurostar, you're UK based if I understand it correctly?) away.
 
I'm so sorry to hear about that mate, really disappointing as my recent Walibi trip gave me a new number one. But, you're correct, you need to look after your health first and Walibi is only a short flight (or Eurostar, you're UK based if I understand it correctly?) away.
I’m in the States, actually, but getting back to the Brussels area again in the future wouldn’t be a problem.
 
I actually think there's something wrong with the RTH trains as i've not heard anyone really talk about how rough it is, but I'm glad you mentioned it as I was thinking perhaps I'm going crazy.
Perhaps there was something going on with the second train that derailed earlier in the year and was sent back to Mack for repairs? When we went, they were only running the other train and none of us found it rough at all. Or it could be a heat thing and it just doesn't deal as well with the few kph more that it picks up on a hot day. I feel most of the people on here would generally avoid going to Plopsaland in the peak of the Summer, considering it's open quite a bit in the quieter part of the year.
 
Perhaps there was something going on with the second train that derailed earlier in the year and was sent back to Mack for repairs? When we went, they were only running the other train and none of us found it rough at all. Or it could be a heat thing and it just doesn't deal as well with the few kph more that it picks up on a hot day. I feel most of the people on here would generally avoid going to Plopsaland in the peak of the Summer, considering it's open quite a bit in the quieter part of the year.
Fwiw, when I went they ran one train for the first half of the day and then two trains for the second half (which considerably shortened the line). The roughness for me was in the form of strong shuddering, and it was only on the last three or four elements, and it was not felt every ride. I think it was strongest if I took the last elements backwards. 🤷‍♂️
 
A long overdue follow-up. I went to a neurologist and had a bevy of tests with regard to my concussion. Keeping it short here I’ll just say that he stressed that if ever I again have a repeat of the concussed feeling I should give it a rest for a couple of weeks. But he wasn’t terribly concerned about cumulative effects, as he had never heard of that from coasters.

I am planning to be in Strasbourg for a few weeks this coming summer and hope to get in quite a few coaster day trips. It would be especially gratifying if I can get to Walibi Belgium, the park I had to axe from my trip this last summer.
 
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